Robust Optimization

Distributionally Favorable Optimization: A Framework for Data-driven Decision-making with Endogenous Outliers

  • Nan Jiang
  • Weijun Xie
    • Categories Robust Optimization, Stochastic Programming Tags , , , ,

    A typical data-driven stochastic program aims to seek the best decision that minimizes the sum of a deterministic cost function and an expected recourse function under a given distribution. Recently, much success has been witnessed in the development of Distributionally Robust Optimization (DRO), which considers the worst-case expected recourse function under the least favorable probability … Read more

    A Branch & Bound Algorithm for Robust Binary Optimization with Budget Uncertainty

  • Christina Büsing
  • Timo Gersing
  • Arie M.C.A. Koster
    • Categories 0-1 Programming, Branch and Cut Algorithms, Robust Optimization Tags , , , ,

    Since its introduction in the early 2000s, robust optimization with budget uncertainty has received a lot of attention. This is due to the intuitive construction of the uncertainty sets and the existence of a compact robust reformulation for (mixed-integer) linear programs. However, despite its compactness, the reformulation performs poorly when solving robust integer problems due … Read more

    Efficient and Robust Mixed-Integer Optimization Methods for Training Binarized Deep Neural Networks

  • Jannis Kurtz
  • Bubacarr Bah
    • Categories Applications - OR and Management Sciences, Integer Programming, Robust Optimization Tags ,

    Compared to classical deep neural networks its binarized versions can be useful for applications on resource-limited devices due to their reduction in memory consumption and computational demands. In this work we study deep neural networks with binary activation functions and continuous or integer weights (BDNN). We show that the BDNN can be reformulated as a … Read more

    A Unifying Framework for the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem under Risk and Ambiguity

  • Shubhechyya Ghosal
  • Chin Pang Ho
  • Wolfram Wiesemann
    • Categories Applications - OR and Management Sciences, Robust Optimization, Stochastic Programming Tags , ,

    We propose a generic model for the capacitated vehicle routing problem (CVRP) under demand uncertainty. By combining risk measures, satisficing measures or disutility functions with complete or partial characterizations of the probability distribution governing the demands, our formulation bridges the popular but often independently studied paradigms of stochastic programming and distributionally robust optimization. We characterize … Read more

    Statistical Inference of Contextual Stochastic Optimization with Endogenous Uncertainty

  • Junyu Cao
  • Rui Gao
    • Categories Robust Optimization, Statistics, Stochastic Programming Tags

    This paper considers contextual stochastic optimization with endogenous uncertainty, where random outcomes depend on both contextual information and decisions. We analyze the statistical properties of solutions from two prominent approaches: predict-then-optimize (PTO), which first predicts a model between outcomes, contexts, and decisions, and then optimizes the downstream objective; and estimate- then-optimize (ETO), which directly estimates … Read more

    Screening with Limited Information: A Dual Perspective and A Geometric Approach

  • Zhi Chen
  • Zhenyu Hu
  • Ruiqin Wang
    • Categories Applications - OR and Management Sciences, Robust Optimization Tags , , ,

    Consider a seller seeking a selling mechanism to maximize the worst-case revenue obtained from a buyer whose valuation distribution lies in a certain ambiguity set. For a generic convex ambiguity set, we show via the minimax theorem that strong duality holds between the problem of finding the optimal robust mechanism and a minimax pricing problem … Read more

    Adjustability in Robust Linear Optimization

  • Ningji Wei
  • Peter Yun Zhang
    • Categories Robust Optimization Tags , ,

    We investigate the concept of adjustability — the difference in objective values between two types of dynamic robust optimization formulations: one where (static) decisions are made before uncertainty realization, and one where uncertainty is resolved before (adjustable) decisions. This difference reflects the value of information and decision timing in optimization under uncertainty, and is related … Read more

    Robust CARA Optimization

  • Li Chen
  • Melvyn Sim
    • Categories Applications - OR and Management Sciences, Robust Optimization, Stochastic Programming Tags , ,

    We propose robust optimization models and their tractable approximations that cater for ambiguity-averse decision makers whose underlying risk preferences are consistent with constant absolute risk aversion (CARA). Specifically, we focus on maximizing the worst-case expected exponential utility where the underlying uncertainty is generated from a set of stochastically independent factors with ambiguous marginals. To obtain … Read more

    Adjustable robust optimization with objective uncertainty

  • Boris Detienne
  • Henri Lefebvre
  • Enrico Malaguti
  • Michele Monaci
    • Categories Applications - OR and Management Sciences, Convex Optimization, Robust Optimization Tags , , , , ,

    In this work, we study optimization problems where some cost parameters are not known at decision time and the decision flow is modeled as a two-stage process within a robust optimization setting. We address general problems in which all constraints (including those linking the first and the second stages) are defined by convex functions and … Read more

    Sinkhorn Distributionally Robust Optimization

  • Jie Wang
  • Rui Gao
  • Yao Xie
    • Categories Infinite Dimensional Optimization, Robust Optimization, Stochastic Programming

    We study distributionally robust optimization with Sinkhorn distance—a variant of Wasserstein distance based on entropic regularization. We derive a convex programming dual reformulation for general nominal distributions, transport costs, and loss functions. To solve the dual reformulation, we develop a stochastic mirror descent algorithm with biased subgradient estimators and derive its computational complexity guarantees. Finally, … Read more